TAMPA, Florida (AP) – A Florida deep-sea exploration company
with a record of finding sunken treasure says it has discovered a
ship filled with silver 8,000 feet beneath the North Atlantic
Ocean.

Odyssey Marine Exploration (OMEX) said it found the remains of
the SS Mantola, which sank Feb. 9, 1917, after being torpedoed by
German submarine U-81 during World War I.

The ship was insured to carry silver worth 110,000 British
pounds when it sailed in 1917. That value would mean it could hold
as much as 600,000 ounces of silver — nearly 19 tons — based on
silver prices at the time. Odyssey will retain 80% of the value of
the silver that's recovered. At current market prices, that much
silver would be worth more than $19 million.

The company is preparing a recovery expedition that's planned to
start next spring. It said its share of the proceeds will
contribute significantly to funding future operations.

The shipwreck is about 100 miles from an earlier one found by
Odyssey. The SS Gairsoppa sank in 1941 carrying a reported cargo of
up to 7 million ounces of silver. Odyssey announced that find last
month.

The Tampa-based company, which uses remote-control underwater
vehicles to locate and salvage wrecks in some the deepest water
ever explored, is embroiled in a protracted legal fight with the
government of Spain over 17 tons of silver and other treasure
salvaged from the wreck of a sunken galleon in 2007.

Odyssey made an international splash when it flew the treasure
back to Florida in May 2007. The Spanish government immediately
filed a claim in federal court saying that it never relinquished
ownership of the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes and its cargo.
The federal court sided with Spain. Last month, a three-judge panel
of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta affirmed the
decision, but Odyssey has asked for another hearing before all the
court's judges.

The treasure, which has been estimated to be worth as much as
$500 million, is still in Odyssey's possession in an undisclosed
location.